[princesultan]

Quote:

Unfortunately, I can't help you on the monitoring front but if you monitor electronic music, (excuse my inexperience with monitoring) wouldn't you need to get a feel for how the bass is interacting with other frequencies out of speakers that have stronger bass? If so, the Etymotic's wont really help you here.
 
There are other IEMs which are still balanced armature based and don't have "boomy" bass which you could check out (Westone 4, Shure 535 for eg). You could check out Future Sonics Atrio's too. I feel that with the right tips (most people use tips which ruin the sound and claim they are poor IEMs) they are very revealing, very defined and the bass is DEEP and very textured. They are the original IEM experts and probably the most trusted by professional performers and sound engineers. 
 

well basically, studio monitors are used for audio production. the main quality of studio monitors is that the sound is flat so that when you're producing a track, you get to hear the track exactly how it is intended with absolutely no color. here's an example of one of my pairs of studio monitors: http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/krk-rokit-5-2nd-generation-speaker-rp5-g2/10113359.aspx
 
so yes, i do need to get a feel for how all the frequencies are accurately interacting together. this make me feel that perhaps i may need an analytical IEM like the hf5's since i need to hear all the elements in a track. but at the same time, the type of music is electronic music (house, techno, tech house - around 125 BPM), which makes me think that something like the hisoundaudio crystals or sunrise xcape IE may be better. so i'm actually very confused!
 
p.s. my price point is around 100$, so the ones you recommended are a bit out of my range.

 

[Donut]

Throwing it out there [mostly because it's fresh on my mind because I just got them], but the MEElectronics A151 are balanced armature and at last check are listed as $48 on Amazon. I don't have much experience in terms of higher end audio equipment, but compared to my Panasonic HJE900, which are more fun sounding, the A151s are more balanced and probably isolate a bit better, which says something because I feel the HJE900s isolate well and I've used them on planes with no problem.

 

[princesultan]

Quote:

Throwing it out there [mostly because it's fresh on my mind because I just got them], but the MEElectronics A151 are balanced armature and at last check are listed as $48 on Amazon. I don't have much experience in terms of higher end audio equipment, but compared to my Panasonic HJE900, which are more fun sounding, the A151s are more balanced and probably isolate a bit better, which says something because I feel the HJE900s isolate well and I've used them on planes with no problem.

reviews for that seem pretty solid! wow, i really can't seem to narrow it down. is it fair to say i need a armature and not dynamic driver? i really don't know as this is my 1st iem.

 

[Donut]

Due to their differing design, dynamic transducer & balanced armature transducer typically create different types of sound. I do notice that the higher end earphones tend to skew more towards balanced armature; more specifically, multiple balanced armature transducers. At your price point, though, it may not be as much of a factor so long as you get the proper sound.
 
Note that I'm not exactly an expert in this area. I've always used |joker|'s massive IEM review every time I went looking to buy an IEM. It has not let me down in three tries.

 

[princesultan]

Quote:

Due to their differing design, dynamic transducer & balanced armature transducer typically create different types of sound. I do notice that the higher end earphones tend to skew more towards balanced armature; more specifically, multiple balanced armature transducers. At your price point, though, it may not be as much of a factor so long as you get the proper sound.
 
Note that I'm not exactly an expert in this area. I've always used |joker|'s massive IEM review every time I went looking to buy an IEM. It has not let me down in three tries.

 
I think you're probably right. 
 
I am using jokers thread as a guide but I'm still between a couple, namely the crystals, xcape IE , possibly hf5's, possible a151, with the 1st 2 at the top of my list.